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Title: H. Rendtorff, wholesale and retail dealer in stoves and hardware, 291 & 293 North Ave., Chicago
Description: Racist trade card depicting an interior scene of a set of African American conjoined twin sisters, their mother, their father, and their male suitor. The twins curtsy and their suitor bows his head. The twins are attired in a yellow and red dotted dress with a roffled hem and white collars. Their mother is attired in a blue and red dress with a white apron. The twins' father is attired in a green jacket, a white collared shirt, a yellow bow tie, red pants, and black boots. The twins' suitor is attired in a black jacket, a white collared shirt, a red bow tie, red and blue striped pants, and black shoes. He holds a brown hat in his right hand to his chest. Visible in the background of the scene are framed works of art on the wall, a table, a vase with flowers, a window, and a clock. All of the figures are portrayed with exaggerated features. The illustration is based on a racist series of African American caricatures originally created for Harper’s Weekly in 1878 by Sol Eytinge that satirized the courtship, marriage, and the start of families by "The Twins." A Bismarck Range stove is depicted on the verso of the trade card. Herman Rendtorff was a Chicago stove and hardware merchant whose business operated throughout the latter half of the 19th century., Title from item., Text printed on recto: Introduction of the Twins., Advertising text printed on verso: The celebrated Bismark Range. Manufactured by Burdett, Smith & Co., Troy, New York, And 34 River St., Chicago, Ill., Gift of David Doret.
Date: [ca. 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Rendtorff [P.2017.95.148]

Title: The light-running New Home sewing machine, D.S. Ewing, general agent, 1127 Chestnut St. Phila, PA
Description: Racist trade card illustration depicting an African American family riding a donkey and leaving their small cabin, which is likely located on or near a plantation. The family consists of a father, son, mother, and baby. Surrounding the family are two small dogs, two children waving goodbye on a wooden fence, a child who tugs the donkey's tail, a woman bidding the group farewell with her arms outstrethced, and a man who sits on the steps of the cabin in the background. A second cabin is visible in the background of the image behind the wooden fence. The father is attired in a yellow coat, a white and black top hat, and shoes. The son is attired in a white dotted shirt, a hat, plaid yellow pants, and shoes. The mother is attired in a yellow shirt, a white bonnet, a blue dotted shirt and shoes. She holds the baby in a wrapped blanket and gestures toward the onlookers behind her. A sign shaped like an arm with a hand pointing its index finger is situated beside the wood fence and reads "New home." In the upper right corner is a circular image of a New Home sewing machine. Daniel S. Ewing was a Philadelphia merchant who sold sewing machines at his eponymous store. The store was located in Philadelphia on Chestnut Street., Title from item., Text on recto: We's gwine to get a new home we is!, Gift of David Doret.
Date: [ca. 1885]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - New Home [P.2017.95.140]

Title: Wedding of the twins
Description: Racist trade card promoting stove manufacturer Cribben, Sexton & Co. and depicting a genre scene with African American caricatures originally created for Harper’s Weekly in 1878 by Sol Eytinge that satirized the courtship and marriage of and the start of families by "The Twins." Figures are portrayed with exaggerated features. Shows the sisters getting married a parlor. The twins are attired in white, short-sleeved wedding dresses with ruffles at the bottom and veils. The groom at the left, a squat man, is attired in beige pants; a white waistcoat with a gold pocketwatch chain; a collared shirt; and a black jacket, while the groom at the right, a tall man, is attired in blue striped pants; a white shirt; and a black tie and jacket. An African American reverend attired in a black suit stands in front of them and officiates while holding an open bible. The twin's parents stand behind the couples. The father is attired in white pants, a shirt, and a waistcoat, with a black jacket and bowtie. The mother is attired in a brown dress with a white hat decorated with a bow and sash. Behind them watching the nuptials is a woman, attired in a white mob cap and a blue dress, seated in a wooden chair. She holds a boy in her lap, attired in a green pants and a beige jacket. Three other people view the ceremony through a doorway. In the left is a woman attired in a beige dress with a white apron and a cap; in the center is a man attired in a blue collared shirt; and in the right is a woman attired in a beige dress. A table with a cake and a decanter with glasses is visible behind the reverend. Henry Cribben and James A. Sexton founded the stove manufactory Cribben, Sexton & Co. in Chicago in 1873. The Company closed in 1965., Title from item., Date deduced from history of the advertised business., Distributor's imprint printed on verso: Davison & Steinhilfer, Dealers in stoves and hardware, and a full line of universal perfect & elegant stoves and ranges always on hand, Strawberry Point, Iowa., Gift of David Doret.
Date: [ca. 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Cribben, Sexton & Co. [P.2017.95.38]

Title: It stands at the head. "Domestic" sewing machine
Description: Racist trade card promoting Domestic Sewing Machine Company and depicting a caricaturized genre scene of an African American family looking to their right at a billboard on the side of a building. The figures are portrayed with exaggerated feaures. Shows an older, squat man, a woman, and three children seated and standing in a horse-drawn cart halted on a dirt road. An older boy stands behind the cart. The man, attired in a top hat; a ragged jacket; a shirt with bowtie; and pants with patches on the knees and suspenders sits smiling and holding in his hands a stick and the reins of his horse that wears blinders. The woman, attired in spectacles; a straw hat with a decorative ribbon that is tied under her chin in a bow; a long-sleeved dress; and a shawl stands up inside the cart. She holds a baby in her left arm and points at the billboard with her right hand. A boy attired in a long shirt and pants sits beside the man in the front of the cart. Behind the man, a girl attired in a bonnet stands. The boy outside of the cart is barefooted and attired in a cap; a shirt; and ragged pants with a hole at the knee, and carries a basket. A dog, its tail between its legs, hunches underneath the cart. In the left, the billboard is illustrated with a sewing machine in the center of a star with the advertising text around it. Text reads: "It stands at the head : Copyrighted by the "Domestic" Sewing Machine Co. The star that leads them all. Unequalled for simplicity of construction ease of operation and durability. The light running "Domestic" sewing machine." In the distant right background a house is visible. William S. Mack & Co. and N.S. Perkins founded the Domestic Sewing Machine Company in 1864 in Norwalk, Ohio. The White Sewing Machine Company bought the company in 1924., Title from item., Date deduced from history of the advertised business., Distributor's imprint printed on recto: E.R. Bumps, jeweller, Waldoboro, ME., Gift of David Doret.
Date: [ca. 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Domestic [P.2017.95.51]

Title: Sunday. Yer looks lubly Ephraim, and it all comes using dat Higgins soap
Description: Racist trade card promoting Higgins' soap and depicting a caricature of an African American family getting ready for church. The family is portrayed with exaggerated features and speak in the vernacular. In the center, the husband/father stands smiling attired in a white ruffled shirt, a red and white bow tie, a yellow waistcoat, a long black jacket, red and white checked pants, black shoes, and white gloves. The wife/mother, attired in a bonnet decorated with a blue bow and flowers, a red shawl, a blue dress with black stripes, a yellow bow tie, and black shoes, smiles as she adjusts the bowtie on her husband and says, “yer looks lubly Ephraim, and it all comes using dat Higgins soap.” Their son, attired in a yellow hat with a black band, a red shirt with a white lace collar, green pants, red socks, and black shoes, looks up at the couple carrying a red book in his left hand. In the left, behind the couple, are two more children. The girl in the left is attired in a white head kerchief, a yellow shirt with orange stripes, a white skirt, red stockings, and black shoes. The boy in the right is attired in a blue cap, a blue shirt with a white collar, blue pants, red and white striped socks, and black shoes. A print depicting a red building and two people is pasted on the wall in the right background. The Charles S. Higgins Company, established by Higgins’s father W. B. Higgins in Brooklyn in 1846, manufactured "German Laundry soap" beginning around 1860, when Charles assumed the business. The laundry soap was packaged in a wrapper illustrated with an African American woman washing in a tub. By the early 1890s, Charles S. Higgins left the firm still operated under his name and formed Higgins Soap Company. Court proceedings over trademarks and tradenames ensued and Higgins Soap Company became insolvent by the mid 1890s., Title from item., Place of publication inferred from place of operation of advertised business., Date deduced from history of the advertised business., Gift of David Doret.
Date: [ca. 1880]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department Goldman Trade Card Collection - Higgins' [P.2017.95.81]

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